Potential commercial applications include distribution of wireless audio, video, and data over local area networks (LAN) for home, office, and boats. In addition UWB has the unique ability to resolve global position location to centimeter accuracy as a byproduct of sending and receiving data between multiple UWB devices.

Ultra Wideband Wireless Technology

Potential commercial
applications include distribution of wireless audio, video, and data
over local area networks (LAN) for home, office, and boats. In addition
UWB has the unique ability to resolve global position location to
centimeter accuracy as a byproduct of sending and receiving data between
multiple UWB devices.

Paul J. Marcik is an Analyst with
Allied Business Intelligence. He most recently authored a study on Ultra
Wideband (UWB).

What is Ultra Wideband?

Ultra wideband (UWB) signals are electromagnetic waves with instantaneous
bandwidth greater than 25% of the center operating frequency or an absolute
bandwidth of 1.5 GHz or more. UWB, also known as impulse or zero carrier radio
technology, is a wireless communication technology fundamentally different from
all other radio frequency (RF) communications. UWB is unique in that it achieves
wireless communications without using an RF carrier. Instead it uses modulated
pulses of energy of less than 1 picosecond in duration. The more common approach
of pulse position modulation (PPM), for instance, might assign a digital
representation of 0 or 1 to the transmitted and received pulse, based on where
in time the pulse is placed. Each pulse, when applied through a Fourier
transform formula, can be shown to exist simultaneously across an extensive band
of frequencies. However, the distributed energy of the pulse at any given
frequency exists in the less-than-noise-level range. This allows UWB signals to
coexist with RF carriers with no discernable interference, thereby opening up
vast new communications territories and possibilities by providing tremendous
wireless bandwidth to ease the growing bandwidth crunch.

Why is UWB Becoming a Viable Solution?

UWB is only becoming commercially viable because of:

Federal Communications Communication (FCC) recognition

Decreased costs and advancements in chip development

The evolution of the marketplace

The Birth of UWB

UWB research started in the early 1940s. The U.S. military re-invented it
under a cloak of secrecy and black projects from the 1960s to the 1990s, where
UWB was particularly well-suited to modern radio detection and ranging (radar)
and highly secure communications.

FCC Recognition of UWB

In 1998, the FCC recognized the significance of UWB technology and began the
process of regulatory review. In May 2000, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking, accepting comments for review. Throughout 2001, comments and review
from the FCC, National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA),
Department of Commerce (DOC), and Department of Defense (DoD) were received. The
formal rule change was posted on February 14, 2002, and the birth of a new era
began. The revision to the standard represents a cautious first step with UWB
technology. It is based on standards that the NTIA believes are necessary to
protect against interference with vital federal government operations. At this
time, only prototype UWB products are available, which is why the FCC chooses to
be conservative in setting the emission limits and is waiting to review
production units to see if the standards can be relaxed.

Why UWB?

UWB presents a compelling solution to many of the challenges facing today's
wireless industry. By many accounts, an impeding crunch in RF spectrum
availability will impede the evolution of wireless technologies. UWB does not
use an RF carrier, which opens up vast new spectrum. Variations in RF spectrum
assignments from one country to the next prohibit global interoperability for RF-based
devices. Without such RF limitations, UWB offers the promise of global
interoperability. RF spectrum is so extensively allocated that there is no RF
bandwidth available to match UWB bandwidth potential. Devices using RF spectrum
are more complex, cost more, consume more power, and don't have the data rates
that UWB has. UWB operates at lower-than-noise level and offers greater security
than RF. UWB, as a byproduct, offers inexpensive geographic positioning.

UWB Architecture

From an architectural standpoint, UWB can cost less than carrier-based
technologies. Carrier-based technologies must modulate and demodulate a complex
analog carrier waveform and incorporate the components required to do so. UWB,
on the other hand, offers a truly binary form of communication that can
essentially be boiled down to four components. The first is the UWB
transmit/receive section. The second is a UWB antenna. Third is a digital
baseband processor that handles such tasks as picketing data and forward error
correction. Fourth is the embedded firmware and protocols that drive the digital
baseband processor.

Will UWB Cost Less than Current Wireless Technology?

There are several areas for reduced cost because of the nature of UWB. UWB
technology is possible on a silicon germanium (SiGe) micro-chipset that will
cost less than $30 by its first production cycle. The digital nature of the UWB
transmission requires fewer components than are needed in today's
frequency-based wireless devices. That is because they must modulate and
demodulate a complex analog carrier RF waveform (the frequency carrier). UWB's
microwatt power consumption is another factor allowing greater cost reduction.

The Advantage of Using UWB

The advantage of UWB is that it can penetrate at signal power. For instance,
an unfiltered pulse of 200 picoseconds duration, when applied through a Fourier
formula, demonstrates signal energy throughout the spectrum between direct
current (DC) and 10 GHz. Obviously this is not a perfect square wave
representation because the pulse is subject to some coloring from the antenna -
and antenna technology is an extremely important facet of UWB technology - but
with proper antenna implementations, the distribution of energy is spread fairly
evenly across the spectrum. A UWB receiver detects the presence of the energy of
the pulse in time, not at specific frequencies. So absorption of specific
carriers such as at 1.8 GHz or 2.4 GHz has little effect so long as about 50% of
the spectral energy density of the pulse penetrates whatever obstacles lie in
the transmission path. Absorption at any one particular frequency does little to
affect the integrity of the actual pulse.

Potential Commercial Applications

Potential commercial applications include distribution of wireless audio,
video, and data over local area networks (LAN) for home, office, and boats. In
addition UWB has the unique ability to resolve global position location to
centimeter accuracy as a byproduct of sending and receiving data between
multiple UWB devices. And last, UWB has applications to wireless Internet- and
video-capable devices with extremely accurate GPS-like positioning, such as
personal digital assistants (PDA), laptop computers, and automobiles, and
digital video cameras and a wide range of consumer electronics and home
appliances.

UWB Standards

Currently there are no standards for UWB. But standards activities have
commenced and are critical for full deployment in commercial markets. Standards
are necessary to validate the technology and provide avenues for
interoperability and coexistence, while identifying core requirements such as
scalability and interference robustness, specifically in the physical layer (PHY)
and the medium access control (MAC) layer. The PHY or OSI Layer 1 is composed of
the baseband function and the radio. The MAC or (OSI Layer 2) includes the
processor and the software protocol stack. The IEEE 803.15.3 will be submitting
a request for proposals for standards by the middle of 2003. The approved
standard will not be available until 2005, and could prolonging the advances of
UWB technology even more.

Allied Business Intelligence Inc is an Oyster Bay, NY-based technology
research think tank that offers expert advice and research on wireless,
broadband, and emerging technologies. Details can be found at www.alliedworld.com
or by calling 516-624-3113.

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